Bulletin of Christian Persecution

January 4 – January 22, 2011

January 4, 2011Lebanon (Hat tip to GatesofVienna)
Have Christians “ceased to count” as Pierre Valognes’ “Vie et mort des chrétiens d’Orient” (Life and death of Eastern Christians) suggests? Are they a “race on their way to extinction” as a diplomat said privately?

January 5, 2011The World
Despite Communist North Korea topping the annual Open Doors World Watch List for the ninth consecutive year, the most dangerous countries in which to practice Christianity are overwhelmingly Islamic ones.

January 11, 2011Nigeria (Hat tip to NewEnglishReview)
A policeman was shot to death and another was seriously wounded while they were guarding a Christian church. Watch a video HERE (from Kitman TV via CreepingSharia) on the Islamisation of Nigeria.

Jan 11, 2011Egypt (Hat tip to JihadWatch )
Egypt is recalling its Vatican envoy for consultations over remarks by Pope Benedict XVI on Coptic Christians seen as an “interference” in its affairs, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Egypt
An off-duty policeman boarded a train and opened fire on Tuesday, killing a 71-year-old Christian man and wounding his wife and four others, the Interior Ministry said. More HERE.

Iran (Hat tip to FamilySecurityMatters)
Iran has arrested about 70 Christians since Christmas in a crackdown that demonstrates the limits of religious tolerance by Islamic leaders who often boast they provide room for other faiths.

Denmark (Translated by and hat tip to IslaminEurope)
The Iranian-born head of the Church of Love, Massoud Fouroozandeh, fled with his family from the Odense district of Vollsmose to a little a secret location in a small town, after the two of the family’s cars were smashed since they had a cross hanging inside.

January 13, 2011Iran (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Ethnic Armenian and Assyrian Orthodox Churches in Iran may exist in peace as long as they do not proselytise (i.e. seek converts). It is illegal to preach Christianity in Farsi (the Persian language) just as it is illegal for Muslims to reject Islam (apostasy). The penalty for apostasy is death.

January 15, 2011Pakistan (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Two Christian women were beaten and publically humiliated by an angry mob over apparently frivolous blasphemy allegations and they and their family are now in hiding for fear of being killed. More on Christians in Pakistan HERE.

Iraq
Eight men carrying handguns and steel pipes raided a Christian nongovernmental organization, grabbing computers, cellphones and documents, and threatening the people inside, saying that this was not the Christian’s country but an Islamic state. More than half of Iraq’s Christians have left since the American-led invasion in 2003, when there were believed to be 800,000 to 1.4 million Christians in the country.

January 16, 2011Iraq (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Rising violence in parts of Iraq that Christians previously regarded as safe havens lead an increasing number to flee to neighboring Turkey.

January 17, 2011Somalia
A mother of four was killed for her Christian faith on Jan. 7 on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia by Islamic extremists from al Shabaab militia.

The Vatican (Hat tip to GatesofVienna)
Jews, known for centuries as the most persecuted minority, have been replaced in this role by Christians, according to Pope Benedict XVI, who hinted that he was referring to the Islamic tidal wave that is sweeping the world.

January 18, 2011Pakistan
Pakistani police are threatening the father of an 18-year-old Christian man whom officers raped, killed and threw into a sewer last week, according to area Christians.

Pakistan
Pakistan’s prime minister on reiterated that the government does not intend to amend the country’s controversial blasphemy law, under which a Christian woman has been sentenced to death. More HERE.

Pakistan
An update on the Christian mother of five who was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges.

January 20, 2011The Vatican (Hat tip to JihadwWatch)
Al-Azhar, one of Sunni Islam’s oldest universities and mosques has indefinitely suspended inter-faith talks with the Vatican in response to recent remarks by Pope Benedict XVI on attacks against Christians in the Middle East.

January 22, 2011Egypt (Hat tip to JihadWatch and thanks to Mary Abdelmassih)
Unusually bad winter weather in Upper Egypt all last week focused attention once again on the controversial restrictions on church building. The rainy weather caused roofs of dilapidated churches — which have been waiting for years to receive construction permits — to collapse.